


A Rare Day Off

by Cornerofmadness



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-08 02:29:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17377889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornerofmadness/pseuds/Cornerofmadness
Summary: Buffy’s mom has planned a day off for the family and Buffy has mixed feelings.





	A Rare Day Off

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LittleRaven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRaven/gifts).



> **Disclaimer** \-- Whedon owns all
> 
>  **Warning** \-- none
> 
>  **Author’s Note** written for fandom_stocking’s 2018 edition and written for tigerlily. Happy Holidays.

X X X

Nothing was going to ruin this day, Buffy had decided. It wasn't often she got a day off but when Mom said she wanted to take her daughters into L.A. for the day, Buffy couldn't say no. She had hoped for shopping and maybe a nice dinner but her mother had other ideas. Buffy should have known it would revolve around art somehow. Her mother was obsessed with it, loved it, and Dawnie showed promise as an artist herself. Buffy beamed with pride when she saw her sister's various sketches but had she ever said anything? She wanted to say yes but she was always so busy, being pulled in so many directions. She needed this day off, no matter what it was they were doing.

Buffy had to admit the Getty museum was pretty cool. Giles would have liked the antiquities room. Her mother certainly did. They moved at a snail's pace, studying each Etruscan vase and Greek and Roman statues. Buffy wondered if she was actually beginning to see them with a Watcher's eye. That unnerved her a bit, even more so than her continued expectation that some big bad would leap out at them at any moment because that was her life now.

"Look at this mummy portrait," Dawn demanded waving her over frantically. The patrician face staring back at them was nearly two thousand years old but the colors were so brilliant, Buffy could have sworn it had been painted yesterday. Dawn and Mom's eyes were so bright, absorbed in the painting of the long-dead woman. All Buffy could think about was the Incan mummy girl Xander had dated. She sighed. Was this all her life would be? Worrying about monsters and having nightmares brought up by the most innocuous of things? She sincerely hoped not.

"It's remarkable," Joyce said, looking as relaxed as Buffy could remember her being in such a long time. That alone made the trip worth it. "I know most of the manuscripts will be religious - and I'm not really into religious art - but I can't wait to see it. Some of them are from the early eleven hundred."

"Want to head that way next?" Buffy asked. Too bad Giles wasn't with them. He'd love old manuscripts. Willow too.

"That's the plan," her mother smiled.

Buffy obligingly followed her moment into a room of low lighting where fat leather bound books stood open inside of glass boxes. the reds and blues used in the art were every bit as a bright and beautiful as the mummy portrait. The books weren't her thing but Buffy did like the collection of paintings. Rubens' _Boar Hunt_ made her wonder how anyone could make paint and canvas look so realistic and alive. It set Dawn off babbling about wanting pigments to play with for herself and she was equally excited by the Raphael drawing of Saint Paul If nothing else, Buffy now had plenty of ideas what to get her sister for Christmas.

To her surprise, Buffy liked the sculptures the best. It shocked her to learn that they had been in the museum for hours and that Mom planned to take them to Musso and Frank Grill for dinner. By the time they were stuff and heading home, Buffy finally felt some of her edge coming off. She didn't expect something to pop out from nowhere, and she allowed herself to relax. She might not have realized quite how much she needed a day like this but she was glad she got it. It was a little slice of quiet perfection.


End file.
